Going to the Chapel?
by yurianimeotaku
Summary: This is my submission for mandygirl78's - mg78 here on FFN - LiveJournal writing challenge. See her for the details. WARNING: Jo/Blair FEMSLASH.
1. Wonderfully Shocking News

**DISCLAIMER: **Dick Clair and Jenna McMahon created "The Facts of Life" fictional characters borrowed for this fan fiction. The author of this fan fiction does not profit, in any way, from the story and that all creative rights to the characters and titles belong to their original creator(s).

**AUTHOR'S NOTES: **Here is my submission for mandygirl78's LiveJournal writing challenge. Since this was a challenge from mandygirl78, I just had to include one of her favorite rare pairings. Last, but not least, all my love and gratitude to my girlfriend, E.M. Praetorian, for her encouragement to finish the more complex of the two challenge options, each time I thought of giving up.

**Going to the Chapel?**

Wonderfully Shocking News

Blair Warner sat in the home office she shared with her partner, incredulously staring at her laptop computer. For the last hour, she had read and re-read the news article, but the gravity of the contents had not completely sunk in.

"Blair?" Jo asked as she popped her head inside the doorway of the home office.

When Jo saw her partner just staring at her laptop computer, the brunette smartass could not pass up the opportunity.

"Another blonde moment?" Jo teased as she approached Blair's desk.

When this did not elicit any reaction from Blair, Jo tried again, "It's a laptop computer."

Blair raised her eyes and glared at Jo, but remained silent.

"Good, you're back. At least it wasn't a _full_ blonde moment," Jo laughed.

Thoroughly not amused, Blair shot Jo her best 'You are so not funny' look, to which Jo just shrugged and entered their home office.

As Jo approached her partner, she said, "Okay Princess, what's up?"

Blair waited for Jo to join her and once she did, Blair showed her what the blonde heiress had been staring at for the last several minutes. Jo quickly glanced at the wall calendar to confirm it was not the first day of April. It was June twenty-four, two thousand eleven, but to Jo, it did not feel real.

"Oh sweetie, do you know what this means?" Blair exclaimed.

"Now gays and lesbians can make divorce lawyers rich too?" Jo snarkily responded.

"No…," Blair glared at her partner, "It means we can finally get legally married."

A look of sheer terror crossed Jo's face, "Who said I wanna get hitched? Maybe I like living in sin?"

Jo knew the exact moment Blair heard her words. The silent tears were nothing compared to the palatable heartbreak. At that moment, Jo wished she could take back what she said, because she always hated seeing Blair this sad. The last time she saw her partner this sad was when Blair received the telephone call notifying her of her father's premature passing, several years ago. Rather than argue with Jo, as she usually did when they did not agree, Blair merely stood, cupped Jo's cheek, and walked out of their home office. She headed directly to their bedroom and shut the door behind her. Jo stood staring at the doorway of their home office for several minutes. She was shocked Blair did not argue with her. In all their years together, _this_ never happened. Jo knew she hurt Blair, but she did not realize to what extent, until she slowly opened their bedroom door and peered inside. She felt all the blood in her body drain down to her toes and she started to tremble. Blair was packing a suitcase. It took every ounce of Jo's resolve to shake off her shock long enough to start her brain working again. She walked up to Blair and touched her partner's hand. Blair stopped packing and looked into Jo's eyes.

"Blair, I'm sorry. It was just the shock, that's all. You know I love you, right?" Jo asked as she searched the brown eyes staring into hers.

"Yes Jo," Blair flatly stated.

The lack of emotion in Blair's voice instantly told Jo how deeply she hurt her partner and the flummoxed detective quickly went into damage control.

"Blair, I _do_ want to marry you…**really** I do," Jo exclaimed.

"That's alright Jo. I would never force you into something you do not really want," Blair said with cool formality.

As soon as Jo heard the formality in Blair's voice, she finally understood how much her words devastated the blonde heiress. Jo hung her head in shame and sadness. As she stared at the floor, her shoulders began to shudder and tears dripped onto her shoes. When Blair saw the sad mess silently sobbing before her, her anger immediately dissipated. Blair reached down, cupped Jo's chin, and brought the brunette's face up, so she could look into the green eyes she loved so dearly.

"Jo, sweetie, please don't cry," Blair kissed Jo's forehead.

"B...B…Blair…I…I…I…do love you," Jo blubbered.

Blair wrapped her arms around her sobbing partner and cooed, "I know, I know."

"Can ya forgive me?" Jo murmured into Blair's neck.

"Sweetie, you know I always forgive you for your barbaric behavior," Blair giggled.

The sound of Blair's giggle instantly made everything in Jo's world right again. Jo leaned away from Blair, so she could look her partner in the face.

"Blair, I promise to make an honest woman of ya," Jo grinned.

Blair sighed, but could not help smiling, seeing the effulgent joy emanating from the ecstatic detective's entire being. Jo immediately dumped everything out of Blair's suitcase onto the bed and started towards the closet to put it away.

"Sweetie?" Blair asked.

Jo stopped and turned around, "Yeah?"

"Why did you empty my suitcase?" Blair asked.

"Cause we're good," Jo paused, suddenly panicked, "R…r…right?"

Blair walked over to Jo, took the suitcase from her hand, walked back to the bed, and started packing everything on the bed, back into the suitcase.

"B…B…Blair? I thought we were okay?" Jo sheepishly asked.

Blair stopped packing, "We are," she kissed Jo's cheek, "But I need clothes for my week in Albany…unless you prefer I show up in court _au naturel_?"

It took Jo a few seconds to come to her senses, but she bounced back quickly.

"Naw…don't wanna cause any premature deaths," Jo grinned and began to laugh.

Blair stopped packing and silently watched Jo, who was now flopped in a chair, thoroughly enjoying her own joke. The shrewd lawyer slowly walked towards Jo, removing her clothes as she approached.

"Jo?" Blair purred.

Jo stopped laughing and opened her eyes. Standing in front of her was Blair, in all her naked glory. Jo opened her mouth, but nothing came out.

"Hmmm," Blair smiled; "I guess when you're right, you're right," Blair turned and sashayed back towards the bed.

This time, it took more than a few seconds for Jo to come to her senses.

When she finally did, several minutes later, "HEY! Ya don't play fair!"

"I'm a lawyer. I don't have to," Blair stuck her tongue out.

"Real mature Warner, but I can think of **much** better uses for _that_," Jo was out of her chair in the flash and tackled Blair onto their bed.


	2. The Devil is in the Details

**DISCLAIMER: **Dick Clair and Jenna McMahon created "The Facts of Life" fictional characters borrowed for this fan fiction. Lala wrote the song, "You Give Good Love," which, by request, is included in this fan fiction. The author of this fan fiction does not profit, in any way, from the story and that all creative rights to the characters and titles belong to their original creator(s).

**AUTHOR'S NOTES: **I had to break this writing challenge submission into several chapters, because it was growing into a massive piece.

**Going to the Chapel?**

The Devil is in the Details

Several days later, Blair huddled at the dining room table with her wedding planner as they poured over Blair's extremely large wedding book; the one she started when she was a mere child. When Jo first saw the book, her eyes nearly popped out of her head. It was then the smart detective told Blair to find a wedding planner and the impatient brunette put all the wedding plans in her blonde partner's capable hands. The only stipulation Jo made was she did not want to wear a wedding dress, because she felt twice was enough. Blair gave Jo two choices; either her dress blues or a woman's tuxedo. Secretly, Blair was hoping Jo would choose the woman's tuxedo, because she loved how Jo looked in one.

_"Blair, why can't I wear a nice black pant suit?" Jo complained._

_ "Because this is __**our**__ wedding," Blair answered._

"_But Blair…," Jo whined, "…my dress blues are so stiff."_

_Blair grinned, "Then it is the woman's tuxedo."_

"_A __**TUX**__? I ain't a guy," Jo exclaimed._

_Blair slid her arms around Jo's neck and purred in her ear, "I __**know**__ that. I just like the cut of your jib…," she kissed Jo's ear, "…sailor."_

Today, as Blair and the wedding planner went over the thousands of details for Blair's ultimate wedding, Jo wisely opted to meet her 'best man' for lunch at the local microbrewery restaurant.

"So? How is the 'groom-to-be'?" Natalie asked as she slipped her iPad back into her bag.

Jo glared and growled, "Please tell me ya didn't just blog everyone about our lunch."

Natalie rolled her eyes, "Jo, Jo, Jo, my blog is not for the mundane everyday occurrences like our lunch."

"Good," Jo took a swig of her beer.

"I Twitter those," Natalie laughed as Jo nearly spit out her mouthful of beer.

"Since you and I are having lunch here, I'm guessing your fiancé is home with the wedding planner again," Natalie teased.

"You guessed it," Jo sighed.

"Jo, I have to tell you, I honestly didn't think you'd take the plunge. I figured you and I were soul mates when it came to…, "Natalie swallowed hard, "…marriage."

"Yeah, but you ain't dating Blair Warner either," Jo smiled.

"True," Natalie paused in thought, "I always wondered what dating Blair Warner was like."

Jo glared at Natalie and nearly scared the perky reporter to death.

"Whoa!" Natalie held both hands up in surrender, "I'm straight, remember?"

"Yeah?" Jo menacingly leaned towards Natalie, "So was Blair…at one time."

"Hardly," Natalie laughed and playfully pushed Jo away.

"What?" Jo growled.

"I've known Blair Warner since Eastland School for Girls was Eastlake School for Girls. She was _so_ into girls back then…she just didn't realize it," Natalie laughed.

"Blair 'My ideal mate is Prince Charles' Warner?" Jo asked.

"I guess it's a good thing too or she would've hooked up with Cindy instead of you," Natalie teased.

"Gimme a break!" Jo exclaimed.

"It's true! Before you roared onto the Eastland campus, Cindy was the resident…," Natalie paused, trying to find the most politically correct word to use, "…tomboy."

"Cindy? The model?" Jo asked, completely incredulous.

"Yep! One and the same!" Natalie brightly smiled.

"Have ya guys heard from those three?" Jo asked.

"Let's see…Nancy and Roger are still married, amazingly. Rumor has it; he is a stray dog…if you know what I mean? They have two kids and since the economic downturn, they now live in a modest house in the suburbs. Nancy never became a psychologist, because she got pregnant again, soon after the first one was born. Cindy retired from modeling at the ripe old age of twenty-eight," Natalie rolled her eyes.

"What's she doing now? Holed up in some mansion reliving the 'good old days?'" Jo laughed.

"Actually…," Natalie arched one eyebrow at Jo, "She was always a smart one. She invested well and was able to start her own fashion magazine. She and her partner run it."

"Partner?" Jo asked.

"Yep…just like you and Blair," Natalie smugly smiled.

Jo whistled through her teeth.

"Classy Jo, very classy. One would never know you're an Eastland _and_ Langley alumni," Natalie chided.

Jo chose to ignore Natalie's ribbing, "Hey, what about Sue Ann?"

"She currently owns and runs a successful fashion magazine," Natalie answered as she reached into her bag.

Before Jo could respond, Natalie held up her hand, silently asking Jo to wait a minute while she answered her iPhone.

"Yes, she's right here. We're having lunch," Natalie smiled at Jo, who was motioning to know the caller's name. "No, it doesn't look like she's going to run, but you never know with her."

Jo shot Natalie a death glare for her last comment.

"Dorothy says hi," Natalie said.

Jo waved and took a sip of her beer. She grimaced, because the beer had warmed to room temperature and signaled for the server to come over. When the bubbly young girl arrived, Jo ordered a Scotch, then motioned to Natalie, who motioned she wanted another glass of red wine, so Jo added it to her order. Always the reporter, Natalie caught the look the server gave Jo. Realizing Jo was, as usual, clueless of the young girl's flirting, Natalie shook her head.

As the server was leaving, Natalie quipped, "Blair hit you with a large clue-by-four, huh?"

"Wha?" Jo stared at Natalie as if the reporter sprouted another head.

"Jo, you are the most clueless lesbian I know," Natalie laughed.

"Am not! And NO, she didn't," Jo defensively growled.

"Sure, sure," Natalie continued to laugh.

Jo gave Natalie her best look of indignation, but the young woman continued laughing.

In hopes of shutting up her friend, Jo confessed, "Actually, it was Tootie."

Natalie instantly stopped laughing and asked, "What?"

"It was during the chaos of preparing for Mrs. G's wedding. Tootie was singing some song…," Jo began her story…

Dorothy was a flurry of motion, trying to get everything together for Mrs. Garrett's last minute impromptu wedding.

"So many things to do and not enough time to do it," Tootie muttered as she continued her preparations for Mrs. Garrett's wedding.

The young woman could feel herself beginning to lose it, so she did what she always did before a performance; she stopped and took several cleansing breaths. Once again, this helped ground her so she could continue her frantic pace. She began singing a song that had been stuck in her head. Jo was walking towards the stairs when she heard Tootie singing downstairs. She stopped, leaned against the wall, and listened to Tootie:

"_I found out, what I've been missing, always on the run, I've been looking for someone…"_

The lyrics began niggling at Jo, but she did not know why.

"_Now you're here, like you've been before, and you know just what I need  
>It took some time for me to see, that you give good love to me baby<em>

_So good, take this heart mine into your hands, you give good love to me  
>Never too much, baby you give good love…"<em>

As Jo listened to the song, she began reminiscing about all the times Blair was there for her. She swallowed the large lump in her throat.

"_Never stopping, I was always searching, for that perfect love, the kind that girls like me dream of…"_

Jo slumped against the wall and slid down into a seated position as her heart slammed her brain with a large clue-by-four. Finally, after several long years, her trip down that river in Egypt ended. She deeply sighed, but she did not know whether this new revelation was a good thing or a bad thing, a _very_ bad thing. She knew just because she finally came to terms with her true feelings for her longtime roommate, did not mean they would ride off into the sunset together. As far as she knew, Blair was as straight as an arrow. Tears began to roll down her cheeks and she rested her forehead against her knees.

"This is an odd place to sit," Blair whispered in Jo's ear.

Jo's head shot up and she stared into Blair's eyes. The warmth exuding from those doe brown eyes warmed Jo to the core. At that moment, all she wanted to do was kiss her beautiful roommate. Jo's defenses kicked into overdrive and anger quickly replaced those warm fuzzy feelings.

"Gimme a break! Can't a person sit where they want in this house and be left in peace?" Jo snapped.

"Okay Jo, I was just teasing you. I'll leave you alone," Blair said, hurt evident in her voice.

Jo grabbed Blair's wrist and pulled her back down, "I'm sorry. I'm just a bit…"

"On edge?" Blair volunteered.

"Yeah," Jo mumbled.

"Why?" Blair asked.

Jo internally debated whether she should take a chance with her heart. She spent most of her life guarding it and repressing her emotions, so Jo knew a bad reaction from Blair would probably destroy her. As Jo stared into the deeply concerned brown eyes staring at her, she decided and pointed in the direction of downstairs. Blair arched an eyebrow at Jo, confused by her distraught friend's response, but soon understood what Jo was referring to when she heard Tootie singing. The young performer was into her third encore performance of the same song. Blair listened to the song's lyrics.

"Tootie _really_ likes that song," Blair smiled.

"Yeah," Jo weakly smiled.

Blair looked at her strangely sad friend slumped against the wall and wondered what could be making her so unhappy. As if a light bulb suddenly went on in her head, Blair's eyes widened. When sad green eyes saw the shock in doe brown ones, Jo closed her eyes and prepared for the explosion.

"The feelings are mutual," Blair whispered in Jo's ear, sending shivers down the brunette's spine.

Jo's eyes flew open, "Huh?" she managed through her shock.

Blair smiled and brushed Jo's cheek. Jo intensely studied Blair's face, looking for any signs of deception, but found only warmth and genuine affection. Tears rolled down Jo's cheeks.

"Really?" Jo squeaked.

Before Blair could respond, Natalie quickly rounded the corner and nearly fell on her two friends.

"HEY! What are you two doing there?" Natalie asked as she quickly averted the collision.

"Jo hurt her ankle," Blair smoothly offered.

Natalie pulled her compact disc player headphones off, "What?"

"Jo hurt her ankle," Blair repeated.

"You okay Jo?" Natalie asked, truly concerned for her friend.

"Yeah, it's better now," Jo rubbed her left ankle and stood up.

"Come on Jo, we should get some ice on it," Blair lightly supported Jo by one arm.

Jo pretended to limp on her _injured_ right ankle and the two young women headed downstairs. As Natalie watched her two friends walk away, she shook her head.

"Oy! If you're going to lie, at least keep it consistent," Natalie mused aloud after her two friends were out of earshot.

She pulled her headphones back on and continued down the hallway.

Natalie bit into her fried zucchini stick and smiled at Jo. The two friends roared with laughter. Jo downed the rest of her drink and ordered another.

"I guess we never shoulda underestimated ya," Jo laughed.

Natalie raised her glass to Jo, nodded, and took a sip.

"Hey, since I'm the _best man,_" Natalie laughed, "I have to figure out what to do for your bachelor party."

"Nat, I really don't want one," Jo said.

"You have to! It's tradition!" Natalie exclaimed.

"Nat, I don't wanna sit and watch a bunch of guys stripping," Jo groused.

"_I_ do," Natalie wickedly grinned.

"Well, _I_ don't and it's _my_ bachelor party," Jo smugly answered.

Jo laughed at Natalie's pouting.

"And…," Jo wondered, "How come Blair gets a bridal shower and I get a bachelor party? I ain't a guy."

"I know that, but you're the…," Natalie paused, trying to find the right word, "uh, _butch_ one."

The nasty glare Natalie received immediately told her she failed to find the right word. She sighed and waited for Jo to rip into her.

"Why does everyone think I'm either a guy or the butch one?" Jo complained.

Natalie stared at Jo, incredulous that her friend asked that question. She wondered if Jo was being serious. The look on Jo's face told Natalie her friend was dead serious.

"Jo, as for people thinking you're a guy, they're blind, but the butch thing, uh, it's because you are the stereotypical butch lesbian," Natalie stated.

"Huh?" Jo warningly arched one eyebrow.

Natalie smiled and chuckled, trying to defuse Jo's anger, "It's the truth."

Jo considered what Natalie told her and after several tense minutes for Natalie, Jo finally smiled and playfully punched Natalie in the arm.

"What a femme," Natalie teased and rubbed where Jo playfully hit her.

Lunch quickly turned into dinner, so Jo called home.


End file.
